Anne and myself went to the opening of the David Hockney exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last week. It was a wonderful boozy do with lots of celebrities. Great exhibition, most of his figurative big hitters are there including percy the cat and Hockney’s parents but for me it reconfirmed that I like his drawings and draughtsmanship best of all. Even the drawings in pencil crayon are quite exceptional, if a little 80’s looking now, a medium that I would never think of using in a thousand years. It takes up the whole of the ground floor so it’s a big show in every sense and well worth seeing.
November 5th, 2006
There is an article on me in my studio and a dissection of two of my paintings.
September 5th, 2006
My triptych portrait features Mrs Kitty Godley who was the first wife of the artist Lucian Freud. They married in 1948 and he painted her on many occasions, perhaps most memorably in “Girl with white dog” (Tate Britain)
Kitty used to live in the small town of Wednesbury, just outside of my home town, Walsall. She was the daughter of the sculptor Jacob Epstein and Kathleen Garman who along with their friend, Sally Ryan, were avid art collectors. The family donated their art collection to the borough of Walsall in 1972. The Garman Ryan collection is today housed in The New Art Gallery, Walsall and this triptych is part of a series of paintings and drawings which I am making of Kitty nearly 60 years later for an exhibition at the gallery next year.
I wanted the portraits to be very natural, as if in conversation with thoughts being visibly absorbed and formulated. During a conversation our expressions and physiognomy are constantly changing and I thought that a triptych would be the perfect format to explore this idea. The feel of the portrait was inspired by John Freeman’s “Face to Face” television interview series from the 1960’s. It was filmed in black and white and the camera scrutinised the interviewee in intense, microscopic detail from different angles which I have tried to echo in this painting.
Andrew Tift
May 22nd, 2006
This is what the Guardian said about the selection
May 22nd, 2006
